Summary

Part 1, Chapter 1 – 7-year-old Billy Miller is nervous about his first day of second grade because he doesn’t believe he will be smart enough. Two weeks before, on the way home from Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Billy and his family stop in Blue Earth, Minnesota, to see the Jolly Green Giant statue. It is very windy, and while standing on the lookout platform, the wind takes Billy’s new Black Hills baseball cap. Billy lunges for it, falls over the guardrail, and falls on his head. Billy wakes up in the hospital, and the doctor tells his parents and three year-old sister Sally (Sal) that Billy is unharmed. Billy’s father, Papa, even manages to get Billy’s hat back. Back home, Billy shoes the bump on his head proudly to his best friend, Ned. But Billy overhears...